


Simple Illumination

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, Introspection, Prompt Fic, Retirement, Technology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7433562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marvels great and small. Written for JWP #8: The Wonders of the Age.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Simple Illumination

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Again, not so much with the plot, but a little less fluff this time. Definitely hand-wavey on technological details and timeline for one particular bit, although the rest is plausibly true. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.

Readers of Watson’s fanciful writings might be forgiven for thinking that I have seen many marvels in my time, aside from one ones I produced myself. While it is true I have made a few practical discoveries, I cannot claim any great inventive feats. I have witnessed some wonders of technology in the course of my cases, it is true, but not as many as one of his readers might think. Certainly none much more extraordinary than those I live with daily, that have become so commonplace that hardly anyone observes them anymore.  
  
Take, for example, the seemingly simple matter of illumination.  
  
When I was a boy, our country house was lit with lamps and candles at night, and not terribly well at that.  Reading, and most other activities, was difficult, and we retired early.  You can easily imagine my astonishment, then, the first time my father brought me into the nearest town of any true size. A town that had gaslight: big, bright lamps in the street, smaller, brilliant lamps inside the house where we stayed. The very house and town glowed at night, with a brilliance that put candles and stars to shame. I could not sleep that first night, so enchanted was I with how bright and wonderful the world suddenly seemed.  
  
That wonder became commonplace when I went off to school, and I had almost forgotten I’d ever felt anything much about it when I came to London. Gaslight was everywhere there; bright, yes, but stiflingly hot in lecture-rooms and playhouses, and as likely to be a source of irritation in the shabby boarding-houses I could afford then as much as a source of light.  
  
That wonder returned seven-fold, the first time I had cause to visit the [Savoy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoy_Theatre). At that time it was the first and only theatre in the world lit entirely by electricity. The case was a trivial matter that I could have solved in hours, but presented with a chance to observe the theatre, and its marvels, I stretched out the investigation for almost a week. I theorized even then that electric light would likely replace gas-light as the primary source of illumination. And so the trend is, in the large cities like London, and eventually I believe it will spread throughout the land just as the wireless has done.  
  
Electrical lights are still rare enough to cause some comment, particularly out here in the Sussex countryside, where the homes in the closest village still make do with the candles and oil-lamps of my youth. My cottage is something of a nine-days wonder locally. I still reap the benefits from some of my former clients, you see. [Swan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan) volunteering to personally oversee the wiring of my little cottage in 1904 (and the stream-powered hydroelectric device that powers it all) is definitely a rare gift, one I appreciated at the time, but even more so now. For it is no trouble to ensure that Watson’s room remains bright at night, much less so than if I remained dependent on candles, or even on gas (whose hissing alone would be problematical). The steady illumination of the bulbs reassures him, helps him fight back the terrible memories he brought back from the trenches.

A war where there were entirely too many modern marvels, but very little light to be found.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 8, 2016


End file.
